Winter Has Arrived Here

This past week winter finally arrived. Now, I know it is not the winter much of the country has been immersed in, but, nevertheless, it is winter for us! And I don't like it one bit!! I'm already ready for spring. Today it has been cold and rainy. I'm really thankful that it is not below freezing causing ice. Our entire city would be literally paralized if we had ice. With all our hills, no one could drive further than the end of the driveway. We wouldn't even be able to do that. Our drive is not nearly as steep as many others, but if we headed down out of ours, we would end up in the neighbor's yard across the street.

As you can see in these pictures, the boys had to bundle up. They are not used to this kind of cold either since winters in Brazil are very mild.

One day this past week as I pulled into the drive, Chris came running all wide-eyed telling me something in Portuguese that of course I could not understand - all except the word "jeep." I thought that he had gotten a new little toy car, because he loooooves to play with cars. But, NO, it was one of those little battery-powered two-seater cars. I see so many kids riding in those as I pass by yards. In fact the children in the house next to ours has one. I've looked at them before, but they are quite expensive. Fernanda found one drastically reduced at WalMart and got it for the boys. For the rest of that day until bedtime (except during supper), they were sitting in it as it sat in our garage. They couldn't ride it because the battery was charging. It finally got so cold out there, they had to come in.

They've been going to preschool from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. They really enjoy it. The first day Dylan was a little shy, but Chris walked right in like he belonged there. I wonder how the teachers do with him since he doesn't speak English. He is starting to say a few things in English now if you ask him to. It is amazing how you eventually learn to communicate with him by facial expressions, body language, me picking up bits of Portuguese and him picking up bits of English. Most of the time I can figure out what he is saying - or at least the gist of it. The rest of the time, I just ask Dylan what he said. Dylan is getting to the place where he just goes ahead and tells me before I have a chance to ask him. :)